Boise State looking to stay perfect against Nevada
The no. 4 ranked Boise State Broncos will be putting their perfect record on the line against conference rival and no. 19 ranked Nevada Wolf Pack. The game, which will be played on Friday 26 November, has plenty of implications involved, especially
if Nevada is able to pull off the upset.
Nevada’s season to date
Nevada opened their season with a victory over Eastern Washington and kept on winning for six games straight. Colorado State, California, Brigham Young University (BYU), University of Nevada-Las Vegas (UNLV) and San Jose State all fell victim to the
Wolf Pack’s domination.
On 16 October, Nevada’s winning streak was snapped when they lost on the road to Hawaii, 27-21. The Wolf Pack, however, cut the losing right there and, since that game, have won their past four games.
Utah State, Idaho, Fresno State and New Mexico were all mauled by the Wolf Pack, who scored more than 50 points in three of those victories.
The Wolf Pack currently sit at 10-1 overall and 5-1 in the Western Athletic Conference (WAC), which is good enough for third place, however, a victory over the Boise State Broncos on Friday could leap-frog them into first place via tie breaker.
Boise State’s season so far
The Broncos are the class of the WAC with their 10-0 overall record, and 6-0 in conference.
They opened their season with a 33-30 victory over Virginia Tech, which has been their closest margin of victory to date. Since that game, they have defeated Wyoming, Oregon State, New Mexico State, Toledo, San Jose State, Louisiana Tech, Hawaii, Idaho and
Fresno State. In eight of their ten games, the Broncos have scored over 40 points, and in five of them they scored over 50.
The offence is averaging 47.9 points per game, which ranks second in the country, but that does not say much when they have only played two ranked opponents so far this season in week one and week four.
Boise State and Nevada’s previous meetings
"We need to come out to a faster start than we have in the past. I think coach said at one point last year it was 27-3 before we actually started moving. I think if we can cut that first-quarter separation down, we'll have a good chance at winning
this game." Wolf Pack quarterback Colin Kaepernick said according to rgj.com.
A very true statement as history shows us that Nevada has been a worthy opponent for Boise State in the past three seasons. Back in 2007, Boise State just narrowly snuck out a victory, winning 69-67 in the fourth overtime, but it should be noted that the Broncos
had a 14-point lead early in the game.
In 2008, Nevada had a chance to send the game into overtime with Kaepernick driving the Wolf Pack deep inside Bronco territory as the time was winding down. However, his pass into the end zone was batted down on fourth and thus the Broncos were handed the
victory 41-34.
Last year's meeting had the Broncos jump out to a 20-0 lead early in the game, and it seemed they would never relinquish that lead. The final score was 44-33, but it was really the Bronco defence that held the Wolf Pack at bay as they forced a three and out
in the third quarter with the momentum clearly on Nevada’s side.
“Close doesn’t count,” Nevada coach Chris Ault said Monday according to espn.go.com. “Those games are done, they're history they’re in the past. We have to find a way to finish the deal and we have not been able to do that. Therein lies the challenge. All
that stuff of what happened last year, the year before, the year before, those are great things for those teams but close didn’t bring the trophy. We have to find a way to finish against an even better Boise team than we’ve played the last three years.”
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